This book is incredible. Being that I'm from Michigan and live in Michigan, I tend to gravitate toward historical "things" from Michigan's past.
This book was published in Lansing, MI in 1888 by Thorp & Godfrey, State Printers and Binders. The title page is magnificent, it depicts the state seal of Michigan and shows the publisher. The book isn't in too bad of shape, probably not in good enough condition for a serious book collector, which I am not.
On the inside cover there is an inscription that reads "From the State of Michigan, To Grange No. 545 T'w'p of Ashland, County of Newaygo, This book must be kept in the regularly maintained district school library or it shall be forfeited to the State."

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antiquesareamazing, 4 years agoThanks for the comment, AR8Jason! I'm assuming the note about being forfeited to the state is no longer valid, otherwise I better hand it over. :-)
I was vaguely familiar with the grange, there are a few original buildings around here that are being saved. I have some sheet music books from the State of Michigan Grange (1929, 1935 and 1945), I was introduced to the state grange when I purchased those.

The book is collection of papers and records from the Pioneer and Historical Society of the State of Michigan, it is an overview of all the records that belonged to the Committee of Historians at that time. It contains an autobiography of Hon. Henry Fralick, the 12th president of the Michigan State Pioneer Society. The preface explains that this book is the first of its kind, meaning that the first half is information from the society's collections and the second half is a portion of the Haldimand Papers, pertaining to the years 1762-1782, the other papers were published prior to Vol. X and the remainder were published after Vol. X.
I love that even back then they were thinking about their past, one thing that stands out to me when looking through this book is that when this was published the State of Michigan capitol building was only nine years old, built in 1879, it's still standing today at 133 years old. Amazing!